Marvel Sequel Bits: What's Next For The Hulk, Thor, Captain America, And Other Marvel Heroes?

With The Avengers opening in the US in a couple of days and doing really well in other countries over the past week, the cast and creators of the film are out in full promotional force. Given Marvel's long-range plans for films continuing the stories of Thor, Captain America, the Hulk, and other characters, that is naturally leading to a lot of questions about possible sequels for those and other Marvel heroes.

So, after the break you'll find:

The standout character in The Avengers is almost certainly the Hulk. Mark Ruffalo gives his take on Bruce Banner a great sort of intelligent uncertainty, and when the character is roaming the streets as "the other guy," as he calls him, he's part of a couple of the most crowd-pleasing moments in the movie.

We know that Ruffalo is signed for more than one film — any actor making a Marvel movie is — and he tells Collider that he's got a six-film deal that could put him in any number of other Marvel movies. Just how that will work remains to be seen, since we know the next couple Marvel sequels, like Iron Man 3, are meant to put the characters back in their own individual storylines and experiences. (That said, those who've seen The Avengers understand that there is some reason to hope for a Banner appearance in Iron Man 3.)

We've heard that Marvel could make another solo Hulk movie after all, but seeing how well the character works in The Avengers, it seems he's best used as a supporting player. For what it's worth, Ruffalo did tell Movieline "I would hope [a Hulk spin-off would do well]! But they have a lot of other movies that they're making. [Laughs] They have three already in the works. I'd be totally open to it, but I think that's a long way away.

Meanwhile, the version of Thor seen in The Avengers is a more mature, experienced fighter and leader. And as the character goes on to other worlds in his own sequel film, Chris Hemsworth tells MTV that he's hoping Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor will bring a gritty, organic feel to Asgard and the other worlds we'll hopefully see in Thor 2.

[Game of Thrones] had a real mythical element to it, but it was rooted in such an organic and tangible world. I think Asgard could really benefit from that sort of a grittier, aged feel to it and not so ethereal," he said. "The big thing about the comics for me was the origin story. Thor was interesting, but what I found more fascinating was the other worlds and realms that you can be taken off into.

Speaking to Wired, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige talked in brief about what we might see in the next Captain America movie:

Cap's in the modern day now. So if we looked at war movies from the '40s as our inspiration for the first Cap, the next one we're looking at very different movies, very different inspiration. So it will almost be a different genre of film, which I've never seen before in a sequel.

He also told Movieline that Black Widow is likely to appear in someone else's movie before she gets her own standalone film. But there is a lot of backstory to the character implied in a couple scenes of The Avengers (I won't throw Feige's quote in here, to avoid possible spoilers) and he does say "Who knows what those things are? We haven't seen any of those things in other movies! What were those things, what do they mean? I love that. I'd love to explore that deeper."

And then there's always the question of what characters we might see in future Avengers sequels.

SuperheroHype asked about Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, a brother/sister mutant pair that features in some Avengers storylines, but also in X-Men related books. Fox owns the X-Men and basically all of Marvel's related mutant properties, while Marvel has the Avengers. As it turns out, that makes things complicated:

We both have [Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch]. There's a specific arrangement with those two characters that would allow us to use them with "Avengers," but not discuss or reference their mutant or Magneto-related lineage. They can use them as mutants and as Magneto's relatives, but cannot have anything to do with "The Avengers."

Feige also told Movieline that other properties mentioned over the past couple years as possible Marvel developments remain in the pipeline:

I mean, there are certainly others like Guardians [of the Galaxy], like Inhumans, like Doctor Strange that we haven't yet, but I am confident that we will. So there's a lot of satisfaction now, on the eve of Avengers, that this thing that was deemed impossible has actually occurred.